This topic is one of the most sensitive. Every word must be weighed carefully because each will face close scrutiny. Whatever the substance of the argument, it invites dissatisfaction, disapproval, or even accusations from all sides.
It’s a topic that opens too many doors, touches on too many unspoken issues, pulls on threads so tangled that it’s impossible to fully unravel them, even though each one carries its own story.
It is one of those topics that requires a deep examination of hatred and a deconstruction of absolutist views that trap individuals into roles of either perpetrator or victim, regardless of their personal evolution or actions.
Addressing the resurgence of anti-Semitism at a time when there is widespread confusion and a genocidal war led by Israel in Gaza is a perilous undertaking, to say the least.
It requires grappling with a fundamental question: why has hatred toward Jewish people surged to an unprecedented scale in recent decades, since Oct. 7, 2023? Why was this wave of hatred, which grew bigger as Gaza was reduced to ashes, already palpable by Oct. 7, or even Oct. 8? And why is it simultaneously deeply intertwined with the Israeli-Palestinian issue, yet almost entirely detached from it?
Far from being ‘residual,’ anti-Semitism today is rampant and unapologetic, in a context where racist rhetoric is on the rise and democratic ideals are in decline. Acts explicitly identified as such have increased two, three, or even fourfold in several Western countries over the past two years.
It can manifest as ignominious speech, physical assaults, desecrations, or harassment. It’s as if it has always been there, waiting for its moment for decades, now all too pleased to find a context that allows it to come out into the open.
This overt anti-Semitism takes its most violent form when it manifests itself through attacks carried out in the name of radical Islamism or the far right.
In the past 15 years, Jewish people have been specifically targeted in a dozen attacks, making them by far the most targeted minority by such acts in the Western world.
Sunday’s attack in Australia, where a father and son shot at a crowd celebrating Hanukkah on Bondi Beach, killing at least 15 people, is fully in line with this trend.
In addition to this violent and overt anti-Semitism, there is another form that is more subtle, more insidious, less intense but no less dangerous. It can be found in all political movements, from the far left to the far right, which is now pro-Zionist and turns a blind eye to the “Jewish enemy” in the name of the common struggle against the Muslim threat.
None of those who might fall into this category openly identify as anti-Semitic, explicitly call for hatred of Jews, or target the community as a whole.
But they propagate a worldview, often through conspiracy theories, anti-elitist and anti-modern discourse, which echoes the stereotypes of 19th and 20th-century anti-Semitism about a globalist community that pulls the strings in politics, finance and the media.
The systematic targeting of Hungarian-born American philanthropist George Soros is one of the most telling examples of this.
Israel’s exceptionalism in Western countries, which is largely linked to the overwhelming memory of the Holocaust but also fueled by the influence of pro-Israel lobbies that do not hesitate to intervene in the domestic affairs of the countries involved, provides further fuel for these anti-Semitic stereotypes, even though those who spread them did not need such arguments to form their views on the matter.
This brings us to the most complex question: the one concerning the relationship between Israel and anti-Semitism. While anti-Semitism did not wait for the creation of the State of Israel to manifest, and this creation itself was the result of a desire to establish a safe haven for a community persecuted for centuries, it is evident that it has, at least in the Middle East, given anti-Semitism a new lease on life.
Traditional anti-Judaism, which differs significantly from European anti-Semitism, was gradually joined by a discourse imported from the Old Continent — one that gained traction as Israel grew more dominant.
Hostility toward the Israeli enemy has thus sometimes morphed into a hatred of Jews, exacerbated by the mass exodus, forced or coerced, of Jewish communities from Arab countries.
The genocidal war led by Israel in Gaza marks the culmination of this dynamic, which today makes the Israeli right-wing the main driver of anti-Semitism in the world.
Dehumanizing Palestinians, equating any criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, exploiting Holocaust memory, Netanyahu consistently confusing in his rhetoric between Jews and Israelis, and the fact that Israel’s actions do not provoke sanctions from Western countries — fostering a sense of double standards — all play a significant role in fueling anti-Semitism.
Israel may not create it, but it strengthens it, gives it substance, and pushes some of those who claim to oppose Zionism into a discourse that flirts with, and at times embraces, anti-Semitism.
However, it would be dishonest to consider Israel solely responsible for this dynamic. The anti-Israel obsession, which also manifests itself through a double standard among a segment of those who have made the Palestinian cause their sole (geo)political compass, raises questions that are not always easy to answer.
Is the silence and even complicity of Western governments towards their ally the reason why the crimes committed by Israel stir up so much conscience in comparison to other conflicts?
Is this due to an ideological view of international relations focused on the fight against Western imperialism, which sees Israel as its extension in the region, making the white man responsible for all the world’s ills?
Or is it sometimes also linked to other, deeper, and often unconscious reasons, which are not entirely unrelated to a form of anti-Semitism?
The debate over genocide is the most obvious manifestation of how Israeli politics and anti-Semitism mutually reinforce each other.
There are those who, as early as Oct. 8, 2023, accused Israel of committing genocide, seeing it as the ultimate proof that the victimized people were, in fact, among the perpetrators.
And then there are those who, more than two years later, even as many experts described Israel’s war in Gaza as genocide, still refuse to even consider it, precisely because the victimized people can never, in their eyes, switch sides and become the perpetrators.
In both cases, the logic is the same: Jewish essentialism in the service of an ideology that fuels anti-Semitism.
This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour and translated by Joelle El-Khoury.
